Addaction to continue to deliver Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly community drug and alcohol services for adults and young people

Addaction is to continue delivery of alcohol and drug services across Cornwall for the next five years.

The national charity has been delivering the services in the county for the past five years to both adults and young people, and has been successful in retaining the contract with Cornwall Council.

The budget for alcohol and drug treatment reduces by £120,000 in 18/19 and to a total of £451,000 by March 2020, so we are pleased that we had a high quality successful bid to deliver these services to Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly.

Addaction has bases in Redruth, Penzance, St Austell, Liskeard, Bodmin and Truro – where the YZUP service is also based.

The charity provides free, confidential and non-judgmental support to anyone affected by their own or someone else’s alcohol or drug use.

Associate director James Sainsbury said: “We’re delighted to continue our work in Cornwall and I want to congratulate the whole team on our excellent work.”

During the past five years, Addaction Cornwall and Isles of Scilly has supported 6,047 different adults and is currently treating 1,899 adults in the county.

Addaction has also been successful in securing funding of £780,000 from the Government’s Life Chances Fund to set up a project in Cornwall to cut the number of people frequently attending the hospital A&E departments due to alcohol or drugs.

Known as ‘frequent attenders’, there is a group of people who take up a disproportionate amount of time, resources and finances for hospital A&E departments because of their regular attendance due to alcohol or drug use.

Addaction will be using a combination of assertive outreach, high intensity work and partnership work to get this group to address their use and attend less.

“Around 35% of A&E admissions are down to alcohol and by tackling the frequent attenders we can help the hospital free up their resources to help others. The work will involve linking in with people from housing, the police, the council and other professionals to make sure we’re addressing all their needs and issues at once,” said James Sainsbury.

The project will be launched thanks to the Life Chances grant which is used to set up a social impact bond that will continue to fund the project outcomes. To date Addaction has been awarded the largest contribution for it from Life Chances.

Addaction is the first substance misuse charity in the UK to run a social impact bond and the Cornwall project will be watched with interest by officials and researchers to see if it will work elsewhere in the country.

A pilot project has been running in Treliske A&E and it will officially launch with an extended service from April 1st.

James Sainsbury said: “No service in the UK has been able to fully address the issue of frequent attenders before. We’re hopeful this innovative approach will significantly improve the lives of this group of people and give a new way forward for other services across the country.”

Minister for sport and civil society, Tracey Crouch, said: ‘This funding will benefit some of the most vulnerable people in society and provide vital support to help them transform their lives.

‘The UK is a world leader in using social impact bonds to make a positive impact in society and these projects will achieve real results in communities across the country.’

The Government Outcomes Laboratory (GoLab) based at Oxford University will be monitoring the effectiveness of this project as a funding model for care services.

To find out more about Addaction visit www.addaction.org.uk where you can also access a free, confidential web chat facility.

RCHT now has Addaction outreach workers within its safeguarding team, supporting patients with alcohol and drug addiction. The Addaction Hospital Outreach Team (HOT) consists of two workers: Joanne Sutcliffe and Lee Derrick. Jo and Lee are managed by Addaction Operational manager Lynda Edward.

The Addaction HOT team is working in partnership with the Alcohol Liaison Team, the Psychiatric Liaison Team, Adult Safeguarding and Shelter to focus on individuals who are attending for multiple admissions at RCH in an attempt to identify and address the reasons behind their serial admissions.

Amongst those individuals with multiple presentations is a cohort of people with severe and enduring alcohol and drug problems. The HOT Team aims to identify, with the help of ALT and Safeguarding within the hospital, those individuals and to provide intensive multi-agency care packages to prevent further harm to the individual and minimise, where possible, attendance at the hospital.

The HOT Team also works to bridge the gap between home, community and the hospital to ensure individuals with complex needs are adequately supported. The team’s work has included work with the Palliative Care Service, liaison with Safeguarding and Mental Health Service, liaison with the Specialist Midwifery Team and the Independent Domestic Violence Advocacy (IDVA) service.

The HOT team would like to thank the RCHT wards for the support that they have shown both of them in their new role. You can read more on Jo and Lee in the full article on the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Website HERE